Goodbye, Old Friend! Russell Shaw, R.I.P.

In the early days of blogging there were just a few of us who blogged about VoIP and other such telecom topics. Russell Shaw was one of them, and he was very good at it. A good-natured and knowledgeable fellow, Shaw had a Rolodex that was thicker than those of most reporters. His ability to sniff out stories long before everyone else and then offer succinct analysis around the news made Shaw a natural blogger.

This past Thursday night, in town for eComm, Shaw went to sleep in his hotel room in San Jose and never woke up. Shaw wrote a VoIP blog and BlackBerry Blog for ZDNet. He had been suffering from a cold and had been traveling across the country attending several events.

I am going to miss Russell, especially his emails, in which he shared some industry tidbit or another. Shaw had helped me out when we launched IPNetworked, our failed experiment that eventually led to a more focused NewTeeVee. His passing reminds us of the fragility of life, and how quickly it can all be gone. First Marc Orchant passing on and now Russ…it has been a tough and somber weekend.